Companies will continue to wrestle with the issue of race,
but diversity efforts that strengthen alliances and
demonstrate commitment to all must continue.

When W.E.B. DuBois (1868-1963) sounded the trumpets of
impending conflict between White nations and "countries of
color" at the turn of this century, little did the world
realize the far-reaching truth of his words. In The Souls of
Black Folk, DuBois states, "the problem of the twentieth
century is the problem of the color-line, the relation of the
darker to the lighter races of men in Asia and Africa, in
America and the islands of the sea."

Indeed as we embrace the 21st century with astounding
technological advances and sweeping demographic changes on
the landscape, it may seem to many that enormous progress has
been made in bridging the chasms created by race, gender,
class, age and sexual orientation in America. However, when
closely examining the current status of race, gender and
other categories now carefully tucked under the umbrella of
"diversity," the prophetic nature of the alarm sounded by
DuBois still rings true.

The More Things Change?

This country has seen sweeping changes since the early days
of racial segregation, lynching, Jim Crow and other
then-sanctioned discriminatory practices. The 19th Amendment
granting women the right to vote was ratified in 1920, the
Civil Rights Act in 1964 and the Immigration Act in 1965.
People of color and women have advanced, and some of their
unknown history has been unearthed. Affirmative action, a set
of government-enforced policies that opened doors to
qualified people of color and women, was officially signed
into law under U.S. Presidents Kennedy and Johnson. Heavily
politicized by Presidents Nixon and Ford, affirmative action
has met vehement opposition since the late 1970s. Although
the objectives of affirmative action and diversity are
comparatively different, in the eyes of many Americans they
remain indistinguishable and impose unfair quotas on
minorities and "reverse discrimination" on whites. The legacy
of our past still colors nationw ide diversity initiatives
and affirmative action policies in corporate settings. Some
corporations have gone with the tide of anti-affirmative
action rhetoric and have reduced their efforts to recruit
women and people of color. However, government mandates to
protect equal opportunities for all and the commitment by
many companies across the country to continue diversity
programs offer some hope that not all of our past mistakes
will be repeated.

Diversity In A State Of Confusion

"Diversity is in a state of confusion," says Virginia Nelson,
advisor to the president on community relations and diversity
for the TJX companies. Nelson also states that, "many people
don't understand the concept, and simply boil it down to race
relations. "It's evolving and being reshaped to fit a global
world."

Its purpose, though deeply rooted in race and gender issues,
has expanded to include other categories as well. "Capitalism
is driving diversity," states Dr. Marcy Crary, Ph.D.,
assistant professor of management of Bentley College who
studies the topic on the academic level. As the growth of
diversity programs spread throughout the nation and beyond,
diversity professionals scramble to provide a broad range of
information that can accommodate the needs of an increasingly
demanding corporate client base. The subject certainly cannot
be limited to just focus on domestic issues, as diversity is
increasingly becoming a worldwide topic of discussion.

International Diversity Issues

Technology now connects people across the globe via
facsimile, telecommunications and the Internet. Businesses
search to find new reasons to develop international trade
relations in emerging markets. As a result, greater strides
are being made to validate diversity's value as an economic
bottom-line issue in the global marketplace. "International
diversity is driving domestic diversity," says Maurice
Wright, Director of Employment Outreach for BankBoston, one
of the nation's largest financial institutions. "Our
customers expect our bank to reflect this diversity in its
corporate values. Language, culture and ethnicity are
important components of this new international mix. This is
certainly the case when you consider Henrique Morales, our
Brazilian-born bank president."

International groups such as the London-based African and
Caribbean Finance Forum also recognized the value of
diversity in the global marketplace when it hosted a
first-ever international diversity conference in London in
1996. Held in cooperation with The National Black MBA
Association, the conference compared the dynamics of
diversity in the United Kingdom to the United States.

Middle Management Lip Service

Despite worldwide opportunities, diversity has yet to be
fully embraced by many corporations as an asset to their
labor force. Experts agree that the driving force behind any
successful initiative must begin with senior management.
Diversity consultant Robert L. Young, Jr.,, Tempe, Arizona
says, " For too many companies, diversity is still a fuzzy,
soft, socially nice thing versus a hard metric that drives
performance."

Mary Frances Winters, president of The Winters Group, a
business consulting firm in Rochester, New York, presided
over a CEO roundtable session on diversity attended by the
corporate heads of Kodak, Bausch and Lomb and Frontier
Telephone Company. Says Winters, "The CEOs get the message,
but they admit that the message sometimes gets lost."

Indeed, the future value of diversity in the workplace will
depend largely on how committed corporate leaders are, how
much is budgeted to develop diversity initiatives and how
well diversity-enhancement programs are maintained after
massive layoffs and cutbacks. Kodak, for example, had a
diversity initiative for over 10 years. Despite the continued
vote of confidence from its president, future efforts may be
in jeopardy as the company downsizes by as many as 10,000
employees.

As 22-year Kodak veteran, Jonas W. Gadson served as
coordinator of diversity initiatives until cutbacks forced
him into a different position within the company. Although
Gadson feels that senior management is committed to
diversity, he wonders if the commitment has filtered down to
middle management. "There is a big blockage there. Too often
middle managers don't want to use it, and are affected by the
media. They look at affirmative action, managing diversity
programs and quotas, and simply tie them altogether," he
says.

Middle management lip service rather than real action
threatens diversity initiatives. Too often pronouncements
from the top become the bottlenecks for the middle. This is
especially true when diversity is simply seen as a set of
rules and processes forced on managers. Aaron Nurick,
chairman of the management department at Bentley College, who
teaches and consults on diversity issues agrees. "When
diversity, amplified as an accessory, is merely tacked on as
a special program, its purpose is minimized."

The Future

Given all of the progress made in this country, the prophecy
of W.E.B. DuBois - that the race problem will impede the
progress of this nation - looms large. As the United States
marches toward a new century companies and organizations must
confront the complexities of diversity in an effort to fully
integrate it within the strategic fabric of their employee
populations. In some ways, diversity is being dismantled and
rebuilt to produce a more complete and durable model. Only
through the course of time and through the commitment of
executives, managers, and workers willing to personalize the
concept will diversity become a permanent instrument of
change and progress.

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